After 13 years, chef Keith Pierce closed Angel's Café in Ferndale last summer and got out of the restaurant business.
His full-timers had been let go months before, and he was exhausted doing everything himself, from greeting to cooking to cleaning the floors.
When the landlord called to renew the lease, Pierce hesitated. "He said, 'If you're struggling, maybe you don't want to do it anymore.' And I said, 'We're on the same page.' "
Now working as a caterer, Pierce is among hundreds of restaurant owners in southeast Michigan who've closed their doors in the last five years as declining customer spending and a variety of other factors took their toll.
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